


Countdown

by TriffidsandCuckoos



Category: James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Eve is surrounded by idiots, Gen, M/M, Q and Bond cannot talk like normal people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-23
Updated: 2013-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-26 13:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriffidsandCuckoos/pseuds/TriffidsandCuckoos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It’s not that the numbers are everywhere; rather that they could be anywhere.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has been growing slowly out of nowhere over on my Tumblr. I figured it was time to give it a home that's easier to access.

It’s not that the numbers are everywhere; rather that they could be anywhere.

Since numbers in themselves are hardly unusual for an intelligence agency, it takes Bond a few incidents before piecing it together. However, being a surprisingly long-lived employee of such an agency – surprising for his own number, of course – he does start to see a connection. The graffiti next to his favoured restaurant in London; a memo slipped into his paperwork; the changing face of a digital display in the station.

It’s the last that gives him the clue; allows for the basic paranoia to feel justified.

Bond’s fairly convinced that the latest quartermaster learnt the value of being underestimated a long time ago. Considering the arrogance revealed once you scratch the surface – not a criticism, Bond isn’t a hypocrite, he feels that once you’ve earned it you should keep it – it’s evident that an unassuming appearance doesn’t come naturally. 

Given the few certainties in his life, and the consistencies of MI6 in particular, Bond feels he can confess to himself that he misses his original Q; has trouble applying the title to anybody else. He parrots the name but in his mind he still hears ‘R’ or whatever other quip he’s provided for himself. It’s petty and it’s unprofessional and he’s rather proud of both.

He wonders whether this boy – not a boy though, a man counting on such assumptions – whether he realises the significance of Bond’s continuing insistence on addressing him by his letter. 

‘007’ means something as well, establishing distance or a continued reminder, Bond isn’t sure yet. It doesn’t sound the same as in the mouths of his predecessors. They never spoke with the echo of a challenge, or the dare in their eyes.

The fact is that Q is a great deal of things, and more than anything he is a lot of things that Bond doesn’t know yet (it is entirely possible that this bottle was full less than half an hour ago). He has the resources, so it’s simply whether he has the motive to weave the numbers into Bond’s life.

Q is, above all else, a little shit. Bond’s made leaps of logic based on less.

He’s also dealt with missile launches and the like more than enough times that the barest hint of descending numbers catches his mind, as the first thought to come to him.

There is nothing he recognises like a countdown.

The instalments are erratic – even if he misses the odd number, even if it constantly slips between game and test but above all else _challenge_ \- and whatever they signal, it’s not the regular passage of time. He might find three within as many days, or one in a month. Perhaps it has something to do with Q’s small quirks of smiles, or the assessing glances, or the lazy drift into conversation when the mark refuses to come out to play. Perhaps there is some long game at play. Perhaps Q is just bored.

They’re still a long way from zero.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The (rather short) fragment that started it all.

“So it seems you’ve been running a countdown,” Eve states.

“So it seems,” Q agrees, taking another sip of Earl Grey and meeting her gaze steadily.

She mutters into her latte, “Because God forbid you two should act like normal people,” low enough to excuse the commentary but loud enough that she’s daring him to respond. He does nothing of the sort, naturally. He’s been trained with regard to resisting interrogation, and Eve’s backhanded compliments and sweet deceitful smiles will most definitely not be getting the better of him. (Again.) So he waits patiently for her to continue - or rather, for her to state the obvious, since even if nobody else seems to have really figured it out, Eve knows that the best way to get an answer out of him is to come right out with a straight question. He enjoys word games too much for the other tactic.

“What happens when you reach zero?”

Of course, a straight question doesn’t get a straight answer. It is as Bond has often accused: Q gets a bit of a kick out of acting the smug superior.

“Then I say yes.”

“To what?”

Q gives what he hopes she will correctly interpret as a Look. He’s proud of this look, for all that it comes to him fairly naturally. It conveys disdain, pity, condescension, amusement, superiority, and much more besides. So far Bond hasn’t managed any rebuttal beyond the standard narrow-eyed glare, and if that had any effect on Q beyond entertainment, he wouldn’t last five minutes in this role, now would he?

“Whatever he’s asking.”


	3. Chapter 3

"What will you do if he actually says yes?"

Bond turns to give her what he clearly considers to be a Look. Eve is unimpressed, because everybody at MI6 thinks that they have one and so very few do. This is just Bond trying to focus his arrogance into an expression, and whilst it is certainly impressive, it doesn't really have any effect. If Eve could be won over by ego alone, she'd be working in the wrong job altogether.

So instead she persists. "James, this is a serious question." She rather likes calling him James. It never fails to throw him off. "If Q ever said yes, what would you want from him? Just sex?"

"You make it sound as if I'm settling."

God save her from these bloody idiots.

"After all this - the endless flirting, the pursuit, more engagement than you've had with one of your potential conquests in years - that's all you're trying to get?"

At least he has the decency not to look confused. If anything, he's sizing her up, suddenly suspicious. He's realised she knows something. Good: then he'll also realise that she's won't breathe a word of it. He's a smart boy that way.

For a moment she half-expects him to ask _What else is there?_. Only, while her dear spy certainly is damaged goods (some of the worst), that's not his problem. It's not that he doesn't understand. He understands all too well, and has done since the declined resignation Eve found whilst digging through his files in search of something real.

So he isn't confused, nor does he try to act it. He meets her eyes steadily and knows exactly what she's implying.

"No."

And he leaves.

Well, Eve reflects meditatively, herding cats never is easy.


End file.
